Want to get a handle on your finances and keep better books? Try these five simple steps. While I’m the geekier math person in our family, I’m still not an impeccable bookkeeper. I’m getting better at it, though. I think part of that is because I love the lady who prepares our tax returns. I […]

Need some healthy budget recipes to feed your family? These fit the bill and the wallet perfectly.

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I’ve been busy testing bargain meal plans this week. I’m thrilled about this new feature coming in March. The meals not only build on one another, sharing common ingredients, but they are also quick to prepare and cost less than ten bucks each.

Making the dollar stretch and using ingredients creatively is very fresh in my mind. So, for a quick Frugal Friday, I thought I’d share six of our family’s favorite good cheap eats.

Oatmeal Bar – I buy oatmeal in bulk, getting my rolled oats from Sprouts for $0.69/pound and buying my Bob’s Steel Cut Oats from Amazon via Subscribe and Save. I regularly (at least once a week) serve an oatmeal bar. I’ve been doing this since FishBoy16 was a little guy. The breakfast is tasty and filling and we all love it.

Pancakes – Whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, my family loves a pancake meal. Since I make my own pancake mix from scratch, I control the ingredients as well as keep the price low.

Skillet Eggs – Eggs are a super cheap protein. Spinach, even the organic kind, is amazingly affordable not to mention nutritious. The two join forces in one of my favorite breakfasts of all time. If you buy your eggs on sale, you can easily make this for less than a dollar per person.

Pasta with Red Sauce – I stopped buying jarred or canned pasta sauce about 18 years ago. Homemade tastes better, is cheaper, and doesn’t contain the junk that is in commercial sauce. One of my go-to cheap meals is pasta with red sauce with a seasonal steamed vegetable. Mara did a cost analysis of my recipe a few years ago, proving that it was a better all-around deal.

Beans and Rice – I credit beans and rice with helping us get out of debt so many years ago. We ate it a lot for lunch or dinner. Topping it creatively is what elevates this humble meal and makes it just a little bit more exciting that “beans and rice”.

This is Frugal Friday. In an effort to make these weekly financial discussions more interactive, I’m no longer posting a link-up. Feel free to leave a link in the comments. But better yet, chat with us on today’s topic.

What’s YOUR favorite Good Cheap Eat?

This post does include affiliate links. If you make a purchase through those links, I am paid a small amount in way of advertising fees. Your price does not change, but your purchase indirectly helps support this site. So thanks!

Comments

Frugal meals have changed for me lately. I used to be able to take and add anything to pasta and make a casserole deluxe. It was our best go to frugal food. But eating less pasta now, I have turned to soups. Our kids love soups. If you make your own bone broth you can create soups from just about any leftovers in the fridge. Soups are filling and nourishing if made with tons of vegetables and good bone broth.

I have been making bread, I got a great natural yeast start and I love making good nourishing breads with the soup. What could be more simple and frugal. Soup and bread.

Pancakes and pasta are our two go to fast and frugal meals. I’ve also found that if I make a stash from our leftover chicken when we bake it I can make a pretty inexpensive casserole. I just throw the leftover chicken, bag of mixed veg, and some cream of chicken (canned or homemade) add milk, salt and pepper to taste and maybe sprinkle some cheese on top. Serve w bread and salad – everyone is blissfully unaware that they are eating leftovers :).

Salad bar: start with the lowest-cost greens in the store that week and set out toppings made from leftovers in the fridge. For a side dish, I usually make muffins or a quick bread and brew up some iced tea.

Sandwich bar: set out an assortment of bread and rolls, an assortment of meat and cheese, low-cost veggies and condiments. Other than the condiments, usually most of the options are leftovers from earlier in the week. It is a great way to use up the random leftovers such as the lone hamburger bun or dinner roll or ounce of sliced turkey or the 1/4 cup of shredded cheese. To accompany the sandwich I set out a low-cost side such as applesauce and a pitcher of cold milk.

Potato bar. Bake the potatoes and set out a variety of toppings (again, mostly from leftover odds and ends). When it’s cold outside, I often make apple cider or hot chocolate to accompany this meal.

The kids enjoy “making” their own dinner and I get to clean up the leftovers. By adding at least one side dish that it not a leftover, my husband thinks it’s a new meal. As they say a win-win for everyone.

It sounds unhealthy but i have 3 teen boys 13, 15, 17 yo, who eat differently than the rest of us? I bought premade breakfast sandwiches biscuit eggs sausage and they all loved them so i decided to make my own version. Jessicas biscuits, eggs and sausage individually froze them and at least 1 day per week the boys have a breakfast they can get from the freezer and they love it. Next time i will make them with jessicas turkey sausage recipe! Which will make this an inexpensive breakfast.

Hi Jessica,
Whatever that is in the picture with pasta and red sauce looks really good. Can you please share what that is? I see pasta with red sauce and broccoli along with another dish but I can’t figure out what it is (I know it has cheese though), but anything with cheese has to be good in my book.

Welcome to Life as MOM! I'm FishMama, chief cook and bottle washer around here. I have six kids under 18, and I've lived to tell the tale. Want to know how to make the most out of what you have where you are? You've come to the right place.

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